It's lack of leadership that you have described. We lost to A & T........WE LOST TO A & T! - nuff said. Excuse after excuse. Inept, lost, clueless, come to mind. 3rd year buddy, and without Holton, no real hope in sight as I see it. Recruiting well? Really? Skip and Ruffin both recruited D linemen and O linemen. It all starts and ends there. Look at the last three classes and tell me how many you see? Not feeling inspired from MO - and I'm not alone. Empty seats tell the story.

I personally like coach Mo and think that he will be a great coach someday. Unfortunately that someday is not today. I read this article and it reminds me of the politicians in the mid term elections. He has a good answer for all the problems. The AAC is a better league than we thought it was going to be granted. Most of the rest of the teams have had the same amount of time to prep for the level of competition as we have. Tell that to Scott Frost that turned a 1-11 team in to a winner in two years. Lets not forget that we have been pushing hard for the last four years for the opportunity to step up another level into another league with Comphers silly national campaign to get us into the Big 12. We are certainly not making a very good case for that. A few years ago we were on everyone's radar for conference expansion. Now we are on no ones! Injuries.... I guess that's the default excuse that any and all teams use when they underachieve in all levels of football. After the first snap of the season, no team is 100% at anytime again until next year and not even then because of spring ball etc...... Depth and preparation is the answer and all teams are in the same boat here. "The average fan is incapable of seeing the improvement". If you say so. If the improvement we are looking to sell is that we gave up 70 points to a better Memphis team last year and only 59 points this year to a lessor Memphis team, then I for one can follow that bouncing ball. The Pirate Nation is not very well suited for the type of slow, "wait and see" improvement that coach Mo touts. Why? because we shouldn't be! We have always played with heart and determination. That's whats lacking from this program right now. I could sum it up with the description of one play earlier this year. I wished that I could remember the details better for this example but here goes..... Third and long.... an out pass to the right side of the field..... player turns downfield and gets close to the sticks and tip toes out of bounds. The Ref spots the ball a little short. Coach Mo erupts with a level of passion previously never witnessed protesting the spot. He was out of his mind with passion!! All good and the Referee's conferred and Mo was right. They gave us a better spot and the first down! The problem is that the emotional reaction should have been at the player tip toeing out of bounds! Put your foot in the ground, lower your pads, and GET THE FIRST DOWN!!! As a result of that culture we see coach Mo doing a lot of impassioned protests to the officials. You never win games that way! Heart and determination is how you win games and especially at East Carolina! Never underestimate the power of the made up mind!! Coach Mo...... I beg you..... Quit protesting calls and start asking your players to reach down and find the determination. These players all came to ECU because they have that IT factor, that chip! Help them find it again! Stop speaking about the incremental wins like "we only gave up 59 points to Memphis this year instead of 70"!. Restore the passion and pride to the players! Stop trying to show your effort by protesting calls to the Refs and lets demand effort and excellence of our players. They all want that. We all want that! NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A MADE UP MIND!!!!

Too many of our fans don't want to see these things. Just "Fire Mo" yet they have no solution to starting to win. If your solution starts with "We need Somebody....." then you don't have a solution. I am no expert but Mo makes some great points and Steve Logan himself said last season ECU has a serious lack of talent. Mo has recruited well. Our defense is obviously better although Memphis was not a good game for them. Let's keep pounding as the Panthers say. We are closer than you think. Go Pirates.

Well Said Coach, I agree!

Not a big BB fan, but very happy to have coach Dooley back. Also very happy to get an opening win. Confident we have the right man in charge and expect big things down the road. GGOOOO....PPIRATES!!!

Did someone from the White House take the count of the crowd size?

I did

Brett.......Enjoyed article but was totally dismayed by arm tackling and mental mistakes on special teams. We have got to fix those. Did you forward my info on Danny Morrison as potential AD or do I need to do this??

I agree that the Pirates appear to be battling; Holton Ahlers particularly is a rough and tumble competitor. Tulane away this week is definitely winnable, though not easy. If they don't beat a poor UConn team after that, even away, then things are really dire. If they win those two AAC games, and battle in the other two, then I think Coach's future is 50/50, and might be tipped his way by there being no AD at the moment. If they can also steal a win vs. Cinn. or (especially) NC State, then I'd say he's likely to stay (and should, in my opinion); but if he ends up w/ 4 or 5 wins and sees 2019, then he'll absolutely, positively need to make a bowl. They MUST be able to start running the ball, and fix the insanely bad turnover ratio, on both sides of that equation. Lost in all of this is that they have an exceptional FG kicker, but at the moment, it's a wasted talent.

The OL indeed is killing ECU; they cannot win absent running. I'm pretty sure they've been down two OL starters for multiple games now.

What we have seen from Ahlers in his first two starts is the only hope we have now for a turnaround in this program. 500 yards of offense from him with little help other than the big game ability form Travon Brown is amazing. The interior O line is the main reason we cannot win games.

The law of averages dictates that we will have a winning season in the next 19 years.

Home field varies from plus-3 to plus-4.5 points generally. So add the two to get the difference between playing at home and on the road. If Memphis is plus-4.5 at home and ECU is plus 4.5 at home, the difference is nine points.

The standard advantage for home field is three points not nine points. If coach wants a spark from his return time, I can save him some time. Of the four players he named, one has minimal skills and one is lazy; so that leaves him with Duce Fuller or Tyler Snead. CET 5201

Michael Sinquefield a former Pirate and long time Deputy AD at Texas Christian University (TCU) would be a great hire for the Pirates! He has been a part of explosive growth, conference realignments, entry into the Big 12, stadium and building expansions and is a football guy! His wife’s family still lives in Greenville. Plus TCU has a great offensive coordinator, Sonny Cumbie that is due a head coaching job! Put Sinq on the list! Mike has exactly the experience necessary to move the Pirates forward.